speeding ticket and traffic school?

look 171 · 11-27-2007, 11:34 PM

I need your help on this one. I got caught 2 times within 3 days in different cities doing 12 miles over the limit by radar in my mimi van of all vehicles. I am caught in Los Angeles and 2 days later, in Monterey Park. Can I sign up for traffic school 2 times because the violations are in different cities. With my luck, the computers are linked. In the old days, that was ok. I usually get caught once every 2-3 years, but never this close. If not, I gotta fight one of them. The cop was sitting in a small dark "not a Public" parking lot with half his car blocing the city sidewalk and his lights off. This was at 7:30 pm bumper to bumper traffic. What do you think?

Jeff

djmcmath · 11-28-2007, 02:42 AM

I think that in some states, tickets are organized by county. At least, that's what I've seen in the past. The other thing that I've seen in the past is a form making you swear an oath on your mother's grave that you haven't had any other offenses deferred within the last 7 years. Or in other words, I think you'll have to fight one.

But the obvious question: How is it possible you were speeding in bumper-to-bumper traffic?

Noah930 · Noah930's Garage

Why not check with the people who run the traffic schools? Call one up and ask.

When I was a kid, I recall that the limitations on how frequent you could attend traffic schools was based upon the city or county. For example, Beverly Hills was particularly lenient, and you could go something ridiculous like 3 times in an 18-month period. Most other cities were of the once per 12 months (or was it 18 months?) rule. But, again, why not check with the traffic school (or AAA if you have that)?

TerryH · TerryH's Garage

LA county is once every 18 months.

masraum · 11-28-2007, 08:51 AM

Ask for "deferred adjudication" or "deferred disposition" on one of the tickets.

Here in this area, you can ask for one of these (same thing, just dif name), and they usually charge you an admin fee that may be as much as the ticket, but if you don't get convicted of another ticket in a set period of time (usually 3 months here) then the ticket goes away as if you never got it.

Burnin' oil · 11-28-2007, 10:04 AM

traffic school one time every 18 months, state-wide.

BGCarrera32 · 11-28-2007, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by look 171

The cop was sitting in a small dark "not a Public" parking lot with half his car blocing the city sidewalk and his lights off. This was at 7:30 pm bumper to bumper traffic. What do you think?

Jeff

And where he was parked matters why?

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

Yep. You're boned on the second one unless you can get it deferred.

For heaven's sake if they give you deferred, drive like a grandma for the next 18 months.

And get rid of that hot rod!

look 171 · 11-28-2007, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BGCarrera32

And where he was parked matters why?

I belive that a cop must be sitting in public streets or parking lots if they were to catch speeders. Plus, he already broke the law blocking a city side walk. I don't know if turning his lights off makes a difference. Meter maid gave me a tickets once when I was sitting in a drive way with the tail end of my truck blocking the side walk in a res. area unloading. I was hoping to fight it by saying that?

Jeff

look 171 · 11-28-2007, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Yep. You're boned on the second one unless you can get it deferred.

For heaven's sake if they give you deferred, drive like a grandma for the next 18 months.

And get rid of that hot rod!

Can we do that in CA? I would assume in court and not the traffic ticket window in the court house. If not I wonder if I can still fight that ticket if the judge refuse? They are hard nose judges here in So Cal. They don't have time to look at pictures let alone Video. I once missed a stop sign covered by a tree. She refused to look at the photos.

Deferred? What does it actually mean?

The 25mph signs were 4 blocks apart. I made a right turn in the middle of one of those block. I have no way of knowing. I do not live in the area.

BGCarrera32 · 11-28-2007, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by look 171

I belive that a cop must be sitting in public streets or parking lots if they were to catch speeders. Plus, he already broke the law blocking a city side walk. I don't know if turning his lights off makes a difference.

"No" on all counts.

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding of "deferred adjudication" is basically you ask the court to not enter a finding on your case (guilty or not guilty) in return for your being a good boy for a period of time. If you don't f*ck up again, you get the charges against you dropped. If you do, you get an automatic "guilty" for the deferred item, plus whatever you got busted for to bring it to their attention (plus the possibility of additional penalties for basically betraying the court's trust).

The court doesn't have to do this for you, but I believe it's discretionary.

Try this:

http://www.ticketassassin.com Very good site w/ resources. If you're thorough and do your research you might be able to get yourself out, but no guarantees.

About two years ago I got busted on my motorcycle doing 74 in a 45 (yeah, yeah, I know. . .) and wasn't eligible for traffic school since it was more than 25 over. I was able to research the hell out of it and determined that there was no legal basis for establishment of a speed limit on that particular portion of highway as required (I had to request the latest traffic & engineering survey for the road from DPW to show this, since none had been used, there was no basis to establish the speed limit - don't assume this applies in your case, it's only in specific situations). Anyway, I was all set to fight the ticket in court and while waiting outside to be called, the cop who stopped me showed up and we started chatting a bit. He offered to recommend me for traffic school (even though I'd have ordinarily been ineligible) rather than going through a full hearing, so when I got called in, he mentioned this to the judge, the judge asked me if I wanted to go that route rather than proceeding with the hearing and I just said "yes" (figured it wasn't worth it). That was that. I did my traffic school and that was the end of it.

Bottom line, this crap is all about the $$$. If they can get the money out of you and make you think they've somehow done you a favor, that's what they seem likely to do. Either way, you'll have to pay for the tickets. The single most important thing is to keep that crap off your insurance. That's where you'll REALLY get f*cked - if you end up with points on your license, you're in for a world of hurt.

Check that site. Maybe worth calling up an attorney too if you don't see any likely way to get out of it on your own.

Steve Carlton · 11-28-2007, 04:09 PM

A long time ago you could take traffic school in different counties and they didn't check with each other. I was "experienced" in that and probably deserved a PhD in Traffic Science. Nowadays the records are centralized. You could take two traffic schools, but certainly one would be disallowed. I'd fight the ticket where you have the best chance and no CHP and go to TS for the other. If they're equivalent, maybe take TS with the county that will let you do it online. There's tricks to getting the online school done quickly.

I used to live in Westwood, and got a speeding ticket in Bishop, near Mammoth Mountain. I called, and had to see the judge to find out if I could get TS. So, I drove up to Bishop and was granted TS. To be safe, I drove up to Bishop again and spent all day Saturday taking TS there. Then I got a speeding ticket about 30 minutes short of making it back home from TS.